Odds and Ends
by Liisiko
Summary: A collection of drabbles and ficlets centered around the US version of the show. Features various characters and times.
1. Different View Points

**This isn't one of my usual fandoms, but I needed a break from my current project and I love this show. Sadly, none of my ideas are enough for a regular length fic, so I present a collection of odds and ends that I hope you will find entertaining. I've no idea if I will ever add more to this, but I might if my muse cooperates.  
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**No pairings in this chapter, but subtext is wherever you want it, I guess.**

**I own nothing and everyone knows it.**

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><p>One thing Aidan likes about his friends is that he does not have to worry about losing control and accidentally hurting them. Not easily anyway.<p>

Sally is for the most part indestructible. With the exception of another cleansing ritual being attempted or maybe a fight with another ghost. Those might still be worries, but they weren't things he would ever be doing. She was safely out of his reach.

As for Josh...well he was a great guy and a wonderful roommate, but to a vampire he smelled like wet dog. Definitely not food in even the most desperate of emergencies.

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><p>At first daytime was the worst for her. Alone in the house it was almost like how things had been before the boys moved in. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. The whole world just moving on without her. Wondering how long it would take for her to go insane from the isolation.<p>

Nights were better. Even late when her unlikely roommates were asleep she felt less alone. Their silent presences a comfort somehow. Josh may snore and talk in his sleep, and Aidan may sleep like the eerie undead creature it was easy to forget he was, but it was great to have them there.

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><p>Everyone's got that side of themselves they would rather pretend didn't exist. That side who's first impulse is to lash out violently when wronged.<p>

Josh has the wolf. Not much more to be said there. It will eat him, and all he cares about alive if he can't get a handle on things.

As for Aidan...well, he's better acquainted with that side of himself than any of them -himself included- wants to admit.

Sally discovered her darker side the day she realized who had killed her. It was in the moment she realized just how tempting it was to take Aidan up on his offer to quietly dispose of Danny. It wouldn't have been that hard. He was certainly angry enough on her behalf, and if there's one thing a vampire would know, it's how to get rid of a body.

Still, it only took a second to decide it was far to much to ask of her friend. Even if it was his idea. Even if there were times when it sounded like a _really_ good idea.

He had enough blood on his hands without her adding to it.

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><p>All she had to do was ask. Hell, he'd been willing to do it the moment he learned the truth from her. It was only because she had talked him out of it that he didn't leave right that instant to go give Danny the slow and painful end he deserved..<p>

He could have done it with no fuss. Sure, puling the strings to clean up afterward would have meant owing yet another favor to Bishop and the family, but he was in deep enough already that a little more didn't matter.

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><p>Sometimes Aidan wondered if the kindest thing he could have done for Rebecca would have been to end things them moment he learned what had become of her. He knew full well what a monster one of his kind could be, how addictive the rush of feeding was. How the guilt of living like that at the expense of others like that eventually took it's toll on a person.<p>

She would never expect it from him. He had the advantages of strength and experience, even half starved and guilt ridden he was still more than a match for any newly made vampire.

If it had been anyone else there would be no problem. But her? Not so easy. It wasn't just the sense of responsibility he felt for her condition. Despite all the bad blood (both literal and figurative) between them, some part of him still cared deeply for her.

There had been many times he considered putting an end to her un-life, but he hadn't expected it to hurt quite so much.

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><p>Sometimes Rebecca wished she had never worked up the courage to ask Aidan out. Failing that, she wished she had chickened out on inviting him in to her apartment and making her move. She wouldn't normally have been so bold, but he was charming, handsome and interested in her.<p>

What more could a girl ask for?

Sometimes she couldn't believe how stupid she had been.

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><p>The fact that Aidan will eventually lose both his friends is something he has put a lot of effort into compartmentalizing and pushing aside.<p>

Sally is already dead and on borrowed time as it is. Moreover, she is actively seeking the closure that would allow her to move on and leave them for good.

Hopefully, Josh has a long life ahead of him, and it could be a good life if he could just get it together. But one day he too will be gone.

Still there's no point dwelling on what can't be changed. Besides, with the kind of luck he's been having lately the odds of outliving his friends may not be so high after all.

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><p>The first time Sally had held a living being's hand since becoming a ghost would have been a cause for celebration any other time. Not now. Now she clung to his hand worried by how cold it felt. Was that a normal temperature for a vampire or was it brought on by blood loss and shock? No way of knowing really. She could ask, but it really wasn't the time for those sort of questions.<p>

At first Sally assumed it was her imagination. How many times had she dreamed of interacting with the world? Too many. But, when he weakly squeezed back she knew something had changed.

Nice as it might be able to hold another's hand or read a newspaper without someone else to turn the pages for her, she still couldn't hep but wonder if it was a bad sign.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. <strong>

**Please review. I would love to know what you think.**


	2. Old Connections

**I've had these sitting around for a while now and thought I might as well post them. The theme this time is people from Aidan's past.**

**Please enjoy!**

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><p>Bishop was the sort of man who sacrificed everything for his ambitions. Friends, family, lovers, none of them mattered compared to his ultimate goal. Power and authority. In the end even his own humanity had been just another pawn to be traded away so he could advance his cause. After that not much mattered.<p>

And then there was Aidan. The one attachment that went deeper than any other.

He and Aidan had been many things to each other over the years, some almost impossible to clearly define. And now it was harder than ever to decide just what his wayward 'child' was to him.

Hated friend?

Beloved enemy?

Maybe a bit of both?

No, not true. There was an answer, even if it was one he didn't like. Not even the one person he had some vestige left of feelings for would stand in the way of getting the power he wanted. There could be no middle ground.

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><p>The first thing Suren wondered after silence fell and she could no longer hear the sound of dirt being shoveled into her grave was how long it would take to go mad. If the hunger didn't do it the isolation would eventually.<p>

The second thing she wondered was how long it would take to make herself stop futilely scratching at the lid, trying to claw her way out. It wouldn't work anyway so what was the point?

Fools. They would pay. She wasn't sure how yet but she had time to come up with the perfect punishment for all of them. All the ones who just stood there as she was dragged away. Not a word of protest to be found. No one was willing to risk their precious status to do a thing in her defense.

The fact that she wouldn't have stood up for any of them is something she carefully chooses to ignore.

Not even Aidan spoke up. He was as guilty as the others. Although, not as much as his foolish 'son' was. Oh, how he would pay would when she got her hands on him. But what agony to deliver to him? What could possibly balance out his betrayal?

There would certainly be plenty of time to think of something appropriately unpleasant to balance the scales.

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><p>Celiene had lived her life constantly on guard.<p>

That's the down side of having seen into the darker corners of the every day world. Once you know monsters are real it's not so easy to forget that and go back to every day life as if nothing has changed. You can't just dismiss all the old horror stories once you've lived one.

She stayed away from bars and clubs. Never went anywhere alone with a stranger or invited one into her home. And she encouraged her girls to do the same. That had never been a problem, and she had never felt it to be a useless measure. There were plenty of the ordinary, human variety of monsters out there without including supernatural threats.

Whenever one of her girls brought home a boy she would make a point of cooking something with garlic and keeping an eye on him to see if he was really eating or just picking at his food. That might be an odd precaution, but it was never one she regretted.

She kept a wooden stake close at hand. That had been hard to explain at times, but no matter how odd it made her look she never wanted to be without some defense. Not again.

Still, it had been long enough that she almost believed her precautions to be just silly superstition. Perhaps her encounter with the supernatural was just the byproduct of a wild imagination and a little too much experimentation with drugs in her youth. Never mind the fact that she had hardly ever taken any drugs hard enough to cause those kind of hallucinations and that if you looked closely enough at her body you could still see the faint scars that could only be bite marks from something that had fangs and a human sized mouth.

All that aside, her world was a carefully ordered place. She was just an ordinary woman, dieing of perfectly ordinary causes. She had made peace with that fact. An ordinary life. Far shorter than she would have liked, but not bad as such things go.

Seeing Aidan again turned everything upside down, but it was good to know she wasn't crazy.

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><p><strong>Thanks for reading. Please review.<strong>


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